Gordon Craig

A side view of the Hut.

Next comes the "Hut". It also is exactly the same as the forestry caps worn during the Third Reich. As an aside, the West German Forestry Service wore the Hut also. Only the cap devices varied. Evne though this is an early cap it has the post 1970 cap badge.

Now a shot of the Emhage sweat shield.

A side view.

Now on to the hats I promised. The early hats I will post will remind one and all of the Third Reich caps and that is because they are the same. Even made by the same firms in some instances. The first one up is an M43 style cap made by Emhage. The cap has a dark green trim around the crown that doesn't show up very well against the colour of the cap and because of age. Note the early cockade. The two buttons on the front are made of plastic and uncovered. The reason for this comment will become apparent later on. I'll post a front, side and interior view.

Gents, My comment above about a uniform "escaping" me was not quite correct. It had only escaped as far as the storage room in my garage. I have baought a pair of the light weight pansta couple of years ago but didn't see the tunic until I was in a friends store in Berlin last fall. I bought the uniform but when I got it to Budapest my wife banished it to the garage due to the lovely smell of old mouldy basment that came with it. I hung it up downstairs and haven't looked at it since! Now lets have a look at this uniform. It is quite a departure from those uniforms worn in earlier times. I say that because of a lable in the pants I have which dates their manufacture as in the first quarter of 1989. There are no breast pockets only two pockets on the skirt. The buttons are of plastic and are hidden. There are two inner breast pockets and a larger pocket on the interior skirt on the left side. The collars are green wool as in earlier DDR Forestry Service uniforms. There does not appear to be any way to attach any rank symbols to the tunic and that baffles me. My contacts in Germany don't view this as a change in uniform style but I do. They are also at a loss to explain the lack of shouderboard attachments. I'll be in Berlin at the end of May and will be meeting ith at least one DDR Forestry collector. Perhaps we can come up with some sort of explanation about this uniform.

Ulsterman, Yes the Military Museum has a store, like most museums, except this one sells stuff a collector would be interested in. Uniforms, hats, shoulderboards, collar tabs etc. Charles and I have bought some nice stuff there. The prices can be high, especially on uniforms, but some stuff is reasonable and rare. For example, the first thing I bought there was a complete Customs Officers tunic. All insignia etc. I have never seen another one for sale. A lot of the tunics you see for sale at the monthly show, or from flea markets, have been played with and you are never quite sure what you are buying. Cheers, Gordon

Now a picture of the lable inside of the cap.

A side view of this cap.

The next cap is a much newer one and bears a totally different cap badge from the previous cap. This one appears to be from the Kadar period. The cap is the same shape and style as that worn by the armed forces. It is made froma light wieght material with a plastic sweat band. The lable on the interior gives us the name of the manufacturer; SZOVETKEZET, Budapest; the two words used for hat in Hungarian "SAPKA aNd KALAP"; that the cap is made for a man (FERFI) the size 9MERET) is 57 and it is for the Firebrigade (TU.O) Tűzolt?s?g. Below that is printed T ABORI the meaning of which is not clear as it could indicate one word or two.

A side view of this early fireman's cap.

Gents, Time to add more fireman's hats from my collection. I'll start with a winter cap that I picked up at the Military Museum here in Budapest. I have never seen a cap like this in use by any other Hungarian organization. It is a dark blue winter hat with fake fur fold down flaps. It is also padded inside. There is a stamp on the lining but it is not readable. This cap also has the smallest cap badge I have ever seen on any Hungarian cap. It measures 20mm wide (5/8") by 24mm wide (15/16") It has two holes on each side so it can be sewn into place. The chin strap is not a usable one, just for looks. It is sewn to the cap at each end. This would appear to be a cap used very early in the Communist period.

Charles, Methinks you forgot the picture. Who would ask $1000.00 for a medal not even in the books? Regards, Gordon

Charles, Ok by me. A nice pistol holster and a really nice sword, complete with the knot, would look just great! Regards, Godon

Gents, Another find from a flea market cruise last Saturday. While I had several Rakoci era uniforms I did not have a belt and cross strap for one of these uniforms. Thanks to Charles' eagle eye I was able to add one to my collection. Here is a front view of a uniform with the belts in place. The waist belt is put on first. Then the cross strap is slide under the shoulderboard and buckled on the chest. Not visible in this photo are the two D rings on the left hand side for the sword hanger. The belt has a stamp on the end with the holes but it is not readable. Regards, Gordon

The medal from the ebay auction.

Gents, I picked up this medal today because I had seen it around but never bothered to pick one up for research. As usual, buying the medal introduced all kinds of questions. Charles thought it was on the wrong ribbon and I thought I had info on it home. Charles had a point and I had no info. I did have a picture from a recent auction that showed The Peace Medal suspended from a rectangular metal bar while mine is suspended from a ribbon in the Hungarian National colours and in the standard triangular fold. Charles was told by a dealer last year that this medal was given out for promoting peace along the Hungarian/Austrian border in approximately 1989/90. The medal in the auction was dated as being from 1960 so we have a conundrum here. What is the rue heistory of this medal? It does not show up in any of my reference boks. Regards, Gordon

Charles, Thanks. That helps a lot and I am much less confused now. I am happy to consider them all breast badges until we can find a picture that shows this group really did have a uniform. I am just happy that between the two of us we seem to have corraled all the possible combinations of this badge in a relatively short space of time. Now all we have to do is wait a couple of weeks until the next show and we'll find another variation! Cheers, Gordon

A front view of the heavier drum in wear.

I do not have a good shot available right now of the kettle drum in wear. I have one I just can not find it at the moment. Here is a shot of the heavier drums in wear. I do not have one of these special harnesses either. Someday?

A picture of the brown harness in wear by bugles. They are playing the fife in the picture but the bugle can be seen worn on their righ side. There would also be a holster for the fife which I do not have. The buglers are not wearing the Y straps as they do not have to support the weight of the drum. I have seen pictures where the buglers were wearing the Y straps.

The holster for the bugle. How this works will be more obvious in the next photo.

Markings on the inside of the belt.

The drum hanger. It is a roughly cast piece of bronze and also serves as a point of connection to the left side of the Y straps.

The drum stick holster. I have a pair of drum sticks but they are in storage whith the white parade set that I have.